Italian TV and L'eredità, the quiz show

Steve Cohen

When in Italy and parts of Switzerland that receive RAI 1, I like to watch
the TV quiz program "L'eredità". I am attracted to this show for its astonishing
complexity, its (for me, anyway) educational content both general knowledge
and spoken Italian and other elements that seem distinctly Italian in flavor.
The Italian version of "millionaire", il millionario, plays on Mediaset in
the same time slot. It has never kept me interested for more than a few minutes,
but l'eredit holds my full attention for more than an hour.

The basic rules of l'eredità are simple. Seven contestants each start with
an "inheritance" of 50,000 (eredità = inheritance). In a series of competitive
quiz events, players are eliminated until only one is left standing. As players
are eliminated, their inheritance is given to the player who eliminates them.

It's personal.

A player is always eliminated by another player.

A yellow light marks a player with one wrong answer in an event (errore!).

A red light and "awooga" noise indicates a second wrong answer (doppio
errore!!).

The player with the second error selects another player (A punta il dito
contro B) who must then answer a question; if player B answers incorrectly
he is eliminated, otherwise, player A is eliminated.

The eliminated player goes home empty-handed (the host's cry of "Roberto s'è stato eliminato" or "Giulia s'è stata eliminata" ringing in his/her ears).

His winnings to that point are transferred to the player who eliminated
him (the surviving player "inherits" the money).

The last surviving player becomes the champion (il campione) and, in
addition to winning a significant amount of money, earns the right to return
and play against six new competitors.

Question formats used to eliminate players include:

"vero o falso" (true or false): Say whether a given statement is true
or false.

"la patata bollente" (hot potato): The player is given three answers,
but not the question to which one of them is the correct answer (la risposta
esatta). The player may choose to try the question or pass it to another
player of his choice (la tengo or la passo a Roberto).

"lei o l'altro" (you or the other one): Given a question and one of
two candidate answers, the player must say whether the correct answer is
the one shown or "l'altro" (the answer not shown).

"la scossa" (electric shock): A question is given along with seven answers;
all answers are correct except for one. Each player in turn chooses a correct
answer not yet used, the host says "scossa?", and a light ding or sizzling
electric sound indicates if this is the one wrong choice.

"l'ultima sfida" (final challenge): This occurs when only two players
are left. They alternate answering questions (not multiple choice), scoring
a point for each correct answer. The player with the most points wins. It's
not over yet, though. L'ultima sfida, despite the name, is not the end.
The champion gets to answer seven more questions, choose a second answer
if the first is wrong but only for the first five and if he answers
two or more wrong, the "nearly eliminated" player gets to attempt il colpaccio
(see below).

"il colpaccio" (sudden strike): The second last survivor returns to
attempt one (generally difficult) five-choice question. If the answer is
correct, this player steals the champion title, keeps the winnings and comes
back the next night, otherwise, the original champion remains and gets all
of the above.

A couple of times during each show, the dancing girls come on in scanty,
form-fitting costumes and gyrate to a dance routine. A recent question: the
2003 edition of a standard Italian dictionary defined "ereditiere" (the host's
name for the dancers) as a dancer on this quiz show "vero o falso"? The
correct answer: "falso". The contestant got it wrong.

Occasionally, a popular song is played and the audience, onstage contestants
and host perform the accompanying movements. Friends and family members are
often introduced and chat with the host for awhile between questions.

It's great fun and it's on every night except Sunday from around 6:45pm
to 8:00pm on Rai 1. Followed by 30 minutes of national news.

Note: We have been advised there have been changes to the rules of this game show since this article was written. The article will be updated to reflect these changes as soon as possible.